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As we all know, the aging of the population is sweeping the world, and the research of anti-aging and anti-aging drugs has become a hot spot in the field of life sciences in the world.
At present, the global anti-aging market continues to grow, and the market size has increased from US$150 billion in 2016 to more than US$220 billion at present, with a growth rate of 49%.
The east wind is coming, and the anti-aging track may become the place where the next blockbuster drug is born.
The growth rate is 86%.
The anti-aging track continues to be hot
According to Euromonitor statistics, the current global anti-aging track market size continues to grow, and the market size has increased from 150 billion US dollars in 2016 to more than 220 billion US dollars at presentThe growth rate reached 49%.。The domestic demand for this is even stronger, and the market size increased by 50 in the same period$300 millionThe growth rate is as high as 86%.
It can be seen that both globally and domestically, the demand for anti-aging is increasing. Figure 1 below shows the growth of the global and Chinese anti-aging market.
Figure 1 Global and domestic anti-aging market.
Ref. 1
In addition, according to iiMedia Consulting statistics, the current anti-aging methods are mainly fitness, drugs and skin care, etc., and the population is mainly concentrated in 26-35 years old, and the market is gradually getting younger, which means that there are sufficient potential customers in the anti-aging field in the future, and the anti-aging market still has a lot of room for growth in the future.
Fig.2 Anti-aging pathways and group age.
Ref. 1
Anti-aging is not only a hot spot throughout the history of human development, but also a hot spot for enterprises and capital.
In 2022, a financing news detonated in the circle, and Altos Labs, an anti-aging company established only one year ago, received an angel round of financing of $3 billion, which is the largest financing in the life science field so far, and market sentiment was ignited.
According to incomplete statistics,In 2023, more than 10 companies in the anti-aging track will receive financingTable 1 below shows some of the financing events in the anti-aging market in 2023, with the financing amount of many companies exceeding 100 million yuan.
Table 1 Financing events in the anti-aging market in 2023 (partial).
Data**: Pharmaceutical intelligence data.
Anti-aging drugs have become a hot spot in R&D
Global anti-aging drug inventory
As one of the main ways of anti-aging, the research and development of anti-aging drugs has been in full swing.
According to statistics,In 2022, the global anti-aging drug market size reached 6704.6 billion yuan, which is expected to reach 1568 in 20287.1 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of about 1486%。At present, although there are no marketed anti-aging drugs in the world, many of them are already in the clinical stage, and Table 2 below shows some anti-aging drugs under development in the clinical stage.
Table 2 Investigational anti-aging drugs (partial).
Data**: Pharmaceutical intelligence data.
In addition to the anti-aging drugs under development, "old drugs are reused" also in turn.
1.Metformin
The miracle drug "metformin has been on the road of broadening the scope of indications. Animal experiments have shown that metformin has the ability to enhance cell autophagy and repair mitochondrial function in vivo, target the regulation of aging, and delay the aging of mice and other animals.
The anti-aging effect in humans is based on a large retrospective trial that found that diabetic patients who received metformin** lived longer than those who did not have diabetes. Of course, whether metformin has anti-aging effects still needs to be confirmed by subsequent clinical studies.
2.Rapamycin
It was first approved for use in the field of immunosuppression, but in recent years, rapamycin has been proven to have certain effects in anti-tumor, anti-aging and ameliorating neurodegenerative diseases. Animal experiments have shown that rapamycin can prolong the life of 20-month-old mice, and whether it can play an anti-aging role in the human body still needs to be proved by follow-up clinical trials.
3.Spermidine
Spermidine is also a research hotspot in the field of anti-aging in recent years, and a number of "Science" and "Nature" articles have confirmed that spermidine can induce a significant up-regulation of autophagy-related transcripts, triggering autophagy, thereby prolonging the lifespan of a variety of model organisms.
Spermidine is a naturally occurring polyamine that plays a key role in the autophagy process. In some animal models and in the process of human aging, spermidine levels in the body decrease, which means that the level of spermidine in the human body may affect the aging process of people, which is of great significance for the development of anti-aging drugs.
As with the above two drugs, spermidine currently lacks sufficient clinical evidence.
4.NAD+ prodrugs
NAD+ is an important coenzyme in living organisms, and its content decreases with age. At present, the common precursors of NAD+ are nicotinamide ribose (NR) and nicotinamide mononucleotide (NMN). However, there has been controversy in recent years about whether NMN is an anti-aging "IQ tax", and such drugs are also in urgent need of data to "prove their innocence".
Conclusion
The main causes of aging in the human body are genomic instability, shortened telomere length, abnormal mitochondrial function, cellular senescence, etc. Aging is a gradual, multi-step, dynamic process that ultimately leads to irreversible.
In 1939, scientists discovered that controlling caloric intake could make mice live longer, confirming for the first time that the aging process is plastic, a discovery that was a milestone in anti-aging. At present, the research directions of anti-aging include supplementing NDA+ precursors, restricting calories, enhancing autophagy, repairing mitochondrial function, and activating endogenous stem cell activity.
With the gradual research and understanding of the mechanism of aging, a number of drugs have been proven to have anti-aging effects in animal models. However, due to the fact that it has not been clinically proven, the research of anti-aging drugs still has a long way to go.
References. 1]
2] Pharmaceutical intelligence data.
5] Xiang Zheng, Su Cunjin, Shi Aiming, et al. Advances in clinical research and mechanism of action of metformin anti-aging[J].Herald of Medicine, 2022(003): 041doi:10.3870/j.issn.1004-0781.2022.03.017.
6] The anti-aging mechanism of spermidine and its application prospect in the human body.
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